At the end of January 2012 Balletco closed to further enhancement and is now effectively in archive. The 15+ years of accumulated material will remain as a resource and nothing should be lost. Read more at:Balletco going into archiveAs of 5 February 2012 a new web magazine opened for business called DanceTabs (wwww.dancetabs.com) and if you liked Balletco’s reviews, galleries and other features then you will like DanceTabs. See the site at:

The Balletco Facebook page will remain open and future news about the process of taking the site into archive will be given there. Other interaction can happen there also – though purely about the site as an archive. The Balletco Twitter account will be renamed to DanceTabs since there is little Balletco news to relate and DanceTabs is where magazine coverage continues – we think that is what people want to know about.

The Balletco Forum is no more but a new forum has been taken live (see Balletco Forum Available Again plus Opportunity to Discuss Future) and is being paid for for 3 months by Bruce Marriott. The idea is that the community can discuss the future as well as talk about ballet and dance as normal. A committee was formed to draw strands together, or conclude otherwise. It’s not yet clear what the thinking is but there are hopeful signs. Decisions are needed by 20 March 2012 when the funding stops and the forum will otherwise close. For the latest position see the forum at:www.balletcoforum.com

]]>http://www.ballet.co.uk/2012/03/balletco-is-now-in-archive-hail-dancetabs/feed/0Answers to the last Balletco Quiz of the Year – 2011http://www.ballet.co.uk/2012/01/answers-to-the-last-balletco-quiz-of-the-year-2011/
http://www.ballet.co.uk/2012/01/answers-to-the-last-balletco-quiz-of-the-year-2011/#commentsMon, 30 Jan 2012 11:08:45 +0000Jane Simpsonhttp://www.ballet.co.uk/?p=1131

A Trio of Trios

Whose productions of Sleeping Beauty were performed this year by these 3 companies?
Houston Ballet….. Ben Stevenson’s
Royal New Zealand Ballet….. Gary Harris and Greg Horsman’s
Mikhailowsky Ballet?….. Nacho Duato’s

Which 3 choreographers made the works for Sylvie Guillem’s 6,000 Miles Away programme?…..
William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian and Mats Ek

Who wrote the scores for these 3 new works?
Ocean’s Kingdom….. Paul McCartneyAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland….. Joby TalbotLiliom…..Michel Legrand

And finally…

… as this is our last quiz, a question about us. Which of the following has NOT been interviewed for ballet.co?

After all the fuss about Sergei Polunin abruptly leaving the Royal Ballet, guess who stole the Men in Motion show? Daniel Proietto, in the AfterLight solo Russell Maliphant made for him in 2010. Admittedly, you could read the 15-minute solo as a warning of the fate awaiting a troubled dancer deprived of the support of a company of colleagues – if you know your Nijinsky. But for those unaware of the inspiration for the piece (created for a Diaghilev tribute), Proietto’s performance was none the less magnificent.

Ivan Putrov produced the show to display the talents of his fellow male dancers, along the lines of the Kings of the Dance programmes that have toured the United States and Russia. He was frustrated by the non-appearance of two Russians (Semen Chudin and Andrei Merkuriev) due to visa problems, so had to cancel the scheduled Remanso trio by Nacho Duato, which he would have performed with them. No great loss, unless you’re a Duato fan, but it would have made a more rousing finale than Putrov’s own creation, Ithaka.

The evening worked perfectly well, however – by all accounts far better than the overloaded Kings of the Dance showcases to recorded music. We were blessed with the Music Projects orchestra, conducted by Richard Bernas, with Philip Gammon as guest pianist. The programme opened with a version of Le Spectre de la rose licensed by the Fokine Estate, though bearing little resemblance to other accounts, including the one danced by Putrov with the Royal Ballet. I don’t recall the sleeping girl waking up halfway through to smile happily into the spectre’s eyes before returning to her chair. Elena Glurdjidze (English National Ballet) was charming as the debutante, watched over by Igor Kolb (from the Mariinsky) in dusky pink allover tights and a sprinkling of petals. In spite of the unbecoming hat he was far from andogynous: impressively controlled multiple pirouettes, though with conspicuous preparations, and a fine jump. He didn’t spend much time posing on demi-pointe, which Nureyev apparently used to find the most tiring part of the choreography – if indeed it was Fokine’s choreography.

Polunin came next in the Narcisse solo by Kasian Goleizovsky, sometimes danced at Russian galas. Vladimir Vasiliev used to do it, as did Vladimir Malakhov; Nikolai Tsiskaridze performed it in London at a Coliseum gala, self-regarding in bright blue tights with eye shadow to match. Polunin was bathed in a golden glow, his bare torso decorated with glitter: no tattoos visible beneath the body makeup. Goleizovsky’s Narcissus is a farouche faun, bounding like a goat in spectacular leaps, pausing to play imaginary pan pipes. The choreography resembles one of those artistic gymnastic routines in which virtuoso elements are interspersed with twiddly bits to give the performer time to breathe before the next feat.

Polunin carved his way around the stage, more feral than fey, every shape immaculate. He is a truly remarkable dancer: I refuse to believe we shan’t be seeing more of him in the near future. Yet the solo’s ending seemed almost prophetic, as doomed Narcissus shielded his eyes from a spotlight representing his reflection in a pool of water before drowning, dazzled.

Putrov had the hard task of following on in a deceptively simple solo by Ashton, to music for the Dance of the Blessed Spirits in Gluck’s opera Orpheus and Eurydice. Ashton had re-choreographed it for Antony Dowell in 1978, for an ENO gala at the Coliseum, and it had not been seen in Britain for over 30 years. Dowell taught it to David Hallberg for a Kings of the Dance tour and has now passed it on to Putrov. Ashton’s contrasting dynamics, with shifts of direction at the end of phrases, are so much subtler than those in the Goleizovsky piece that they risk going unnoticed, along with the suggestion that the questing figure might be Orpheus. Putrov sustained the solo beautifully, his landings soundless.

After the interval came AfterLight (Part One), to Satie’s Gnossiennes. Maliphant based it on Nijinsky’s writings as he descended into madness, and on his obsessively circular drawings. Proietto describes great arcs of movement in a space restricted by light, dappled with dark, torn edges. (Lighting by the wonderful Michael Hulls). Through his fluent body, striving and falling, Proietto reveals the soul of a dancer, lost in his mute world. There are echoes of the Spectre de la rose, of the Faune, of Petrushka, as well as of Nijinsky’s spiritual ravings. This was not a display of hard-earned technique but a visceral communication of feeling – which the audience understood. Proeitto received the loudest and longest applause of the evening.

Putrov commissioned Gary Hume to design the set for Ithaka, based on the 1911 poem by Cavafy describing a mythical journey. The phases of the journey are suggested by differently coloured panels along the sides, with a dark window at the back of the stage. The delightful music is from Paul Dukas’s 1912 ballet La Péri. Putrov is the possibly naïve protagonist in yellow tights, who starts out in a series of manèges of repeated steps before sinking to the ground. Enter Aaron Sillis in turquoise tights, his dark hair long and flowing. He seems a sinister, seductive spirit, apt to mislead or mistreat the Putrov figure. Enter Elena Glurdjidze, flirtatiously stepping on pointe like the Doll in Petrushka. Actually, the three characters are most like those in Tetley’s Pierrot Lunaire (which Putrov has performed): innocent Pierrot, taught the harsh lessons of life by Brighella and Columbine. The ambiguous ending is similar, with all three unable to escape each other. Putrov’s choreography is unremarkable, ignoring the insistent rhythms in the music but serving his purpose of outlining a learning curve of relationships. His biog. in the programme proclaims him Dancer, Producer and Choreographer: he still has a way to go before being able to deserve the third description.

“What we need is culture!” seems an oxymoron when said by an Athenian. But these words were passionately stated, in fact almost shouted at me, by a sixty-something Greek balletomane and doctor, bearing gifts of chocolate as he waited to pay homage to the dancers backstage. He was far from alone and culture – at least in the pure form of classical tutu’ed ballet – provided Athens with a very different kind of White Christmas from the one Bing Crosby dreamed about.

I saw the first five of 20 performances, which ran from 15 to 30 December (including Christmas Day) in the 1600-seater Megaron Concert Hall: three were sold out with the other two at 95% capacity, and this pattern was maintained throughout the run.

The idea behind the season is simple. Take a decent company – in this case, the Moscow Kremlin Ballet – with a strong classical base, a good cohort of soloists and an effective corps de ballet but without world-famous principals and add the latter as a string of guest couples from the best ballet companies around the world. Give them the word’s favourite ballet to dance and people will come even when their economy is more Rothbart than Rothschild.

The Swan Lake being performed was a largely traditional Ivanov /Petipa version with new choreography from the Kremlin Ballet’s veteran Artistic Director, Andrei Petrov inserted into Acts 1 (dating back to 1995) and 4 (newly added in 2010 to replace the company’s original fourth act, choreographed by Asaf Messerer). This later addition was a special delight, with a magical opening kaleidoscope of revolving, interleaving patterns, giving a special visual impact to the mystery of Tchaikovsky’s music. Petrov begins the second lakeside scene with the quartet of cygnets before allowing it to multiply into the full ensemble. His swirling, romantic choreography has these spectral white goddesses gently twisting one way and then the other, sometimes as circles within circles, their arms flowing in complete unison; and always flavoured with subtle references back to the choreography of Act 2. The Kremlin corps de ballet improved from good to excellent across these first five shows, culminating in a performance of such symmetry that it seemed digitally enhanced.

For a travelling troupe, the set was surprisingly robust with a basic infrastructure that served castle courtyard, lakeside and great hall without the need for any elaborate scenery-shifting. Allowing for the anachronisms of candles and chandeliers out by the lake, it was surprisingly effective for these multiple purposes. Less creditable was a lack of attention to detail with moulted feathers not cleared away from the stage during the interval between Acts 2 and 3. I especially liked Petrov’s device of opening and closing the performance by having “candles” lit around the stage.

Not all of the Petrovian innovations suited these Athenian arrangements however. In the Kremlin interpretation, the Act 1 pas de trois extends into a second dance (with Prince Siegfried partnering the same two girls) performed to the music usually occupied by the Prince’s melancholic solo. Given insufficient time for any of the Guest Principals to learn or rehearse the choreography, the extra pas de trois became an additional task for the Prince’s friend, Benno. While understanding the pragmatism it makes no sense whatsoever for Benno to be dancing with two young women to music that should provide an insight into the Prince’s psychological state.

Soloist roles were danced by the same cast throughout all 20 shows and the pas de trois was danced inconsistently over the five performances I witnessed by Egor Motuzov (as Benno), Natalia Balakhnicheva and Alia Khasenova. Motuzov always delivered a fine diagonal of initial jumps (I would lay money on the fact that he is a regular Bluebird) but often ran out of steam in the second part of his variation. The two girls also gave performances of variable quality with the consistent flaw across the quintet of shows that I saw being that one of the three was always off. It might be fairer to add, however, that the girls also danced as big swans and princesses, which meant that they were rarely off-stage throughout any of the 20 shows – a truly remarkable test of stamina and costume!

Mikhail Martniuk never flagged in the explosive virtuosity of the Jester but, in addition to the big tricks, he brought a notable range of subtle expressiveness to develop an understanding of the Prince and his court. I was also impressed by the consistency of Kiril Yermolenko’s work as Rothbart and the fact that he made the sorcerer seem both evil and powerful, a combination that is often under-achieved. As the Queen, Ekaterina Khristoforova achieved a similar double whammy in her motherly majesty.

Before assessing the brace of Guest Principal couplings, let me conclude the host team review by speaking of the performances by Alexandra Timofeeva and Maxim Afanasief in the principal roles (they took six of the matinee performances). Timofeeva has huge potential, possessing all the natural attributes and technique for an impressive white swan and a fierce drive to convey the duplicity of Odile while maintaining a sufficiently convincing imitation of Odette to fool the lovelorn Prince. It was a pity that she did not have a Siegfried to match: Afanasief was a late replacement for the advertised dancer (Aydar Shaydulin) and while every bit the prince in demeanour he appeared to be very much an apprentice in terms of dramatic impact with dancing too often punctuated by glitches.

I realised with some shock that the last time Johan Kobborg performed a pirouette on a stage was here in Athens, last September, (performing ’Giselle’ with Alina Cojocaru). It is more than simply ironic that I spent 16 hours on a plane in two return trips to Greece to see consecutive performances, albeit three months apart, by the Royal Ballet’s senior male principal. On this occasion his partner was Roberta Marquez and their opening night was incredibly appreciated by a full house calling them back for repeated bouts of applause more frequently than would be customary in Covent Garden. In truth, they were workmanlike rather than spectacular performances. Kobborg’s stagecraft is never short of being exceptional even when it is on automatic pilot and, here, one suspects that this was needed both to combat a nasty virus and so that he could focus his full attention on yet another unfamiliar production of a very familiar ballet. It occurred to me many times, watching Johan and – to a lesser extent – Roberta, that they were hearing music that has been a leit motif to their lives but, here, often having to cope with doing completely alien movements to that music.

One of the fascinations of seeing three casts of principals was to see how differently each pair tackled the white swan adagio and the black swan pas de deux. There was, for example, unsurprisingly a strong mime content to the Kobborg/Marquez performances and barely any mime at all in the show by the Mariinsky’s Alina Somova and Yevgeny Ivanchenko. Ivanchenko – now, like Kobborg, in the twilight of a great career – is an excellent partner; strong, attentive and without exception presenting the ballerina to the best effect. And Somova’s best effect is terrific. If not the best white swan in the world, she must be very near that summit: the look, the line, the ease of her balances and extensions and her fragile beauty are all qualities that Somova just has in abundance. Always a truly wonderful Odette (and getting better by the performance) she has developed the black side by retaining all these Odettian qualities and then giving them the blast of a blow torch and jet pack. Somova is going to become one of the world’s greatest dancers within a very few years and it is a great honour to have been able to watch the progress of her early career.

This special Swan-White Christmas was just the cultural fix that the Athenian Doctor had ordered and it’s nice to know that he and thousands of others found a welcome present in these performances promoted by Elva Events and David Makhateli (who danced with Tamara Rojo in a later cast). Next Christmas the Moscow Kremlin marathon will be back again at the Megaron to awaken The Sleeping Beauty in Athens.

The Mariinsky BalletChopiniana, The Firebird and Schéhérazade
Washington, Kennedy Center Opera House
January 17-22, 2012

For their traditional annual engagement at the Kennedy Center Opera House, the venerable Mariinsky Ballet brought to their Washington audience a mixed-bill program titled Les Saisons Russes(The Russian Seasons):a collection of three ballets – Chopiniana, The Firebird and Schéhérazade – choreographed by the great Russian ballet master Michel Fokine from 1908 to 1910.

Les Saisons Russes pays tribute to Fokine, a Mariinsky alumnus whose forward-looking, innovative approach to choreography helped revitalize the traditional dogmas of 19th century ballet. It’s also homage to Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev and his company Les Ballets Russes (its roster included such legends as Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, and Vaslav Nijinsky), which pioneered these ballets in the early 20th century in the West.

The program opened with the poetic Chopiniana, a Fokine masterpiece and a crown jewel of his choreographic legacy. This ballet has remained in the Mariinsky’s repertory for more than 100 years.

Fokine called his Chopiniana a “reverie romantique.” Created in 1908 for the Mariinsky Theater, this lyrical and deeply romantic ballet – a suite of solos and ensemble numbers set to orchestrations of the piano music of Frederic Chopin – had always a special place in the choreographer’s heart. It was his most popular and widely performed work, and the first purely abstract classical ballet. Opposing any kind of showiness in dance, Fokine didn’t include in Chopiniana any impressive stunts such as turns in the air, virtuosic leaps or multiple pirouettes, which were must-haves for a ballet performance at that time. Instead, the ballet’s movements possessed both simplicity and ultimate sophistication, with the ballerinas in ankle-length white flowing dresses dancing in a sublime, almost ethereal manner.

The company diligently preserved the choreographer’s vision of this work, and as such, Chopiniana offers a showcase of a flawlessly articulated romantic ballet style.

On opening night, the Mariinsky dancers brought to the fore not only their exquisite technique and eloquent style; they also performed with naturalness and poignancy, aptly conveying the idyllic nature and melancholic mood of the ballet. The cast seemed to possess a unique sense of expression that helped create a stunning visualization of the poetic experience that Fokine so magnificently captured in movement.

The ballet’s opening scene revealed a charming tableau of the female corps de ballet and the soloists arranged in a semi-circle. To the melancholic sounds of Nocturne, the ensemble mirrored the music with sculptured poses and fluid steps. Their languid dancing produced an impression of one long, continuous flow of movement as the ballerinas moved about the stage en pointes as if floating on air, shaping one beautiful choreographic formation after another. Their imaginative permutations offered a fascinating example of the great creative symmetry of ballet, and the resulting effect was transporting and mesmerizing all at once.

The stately Igor Kolb delivered an elegant portrayal of a young poet infatuated with beauty of the eerie sylphs. (Even though Chopiniana has no story, it can be perceived as the dream of a youth, who finds himself in an enchanted forest inhabited by these ethereal winged spirits.)

Yana Selina was delicate and spirited in the Eleventh Waltz, breezing across the stage in a series of graceful jumps and arabesques, her hands fluid and beautifully articulated. Xenia Ostreykovskaya brought a touch of mystery to her part in Prelude. The Prelude is danced in a very slow tempo; and the choreography requires an exceptional sense of balance and timing, which Ostreykovskaya demonstrated splendidly, illuminating every step with utmost serenity and charm. Enveloped by the corps de ballet, Maria Shirinkina and Kolb discovered and revealed their romantic longing to the sounds of the Seventh Waltz. The expressiveness and sincerity the couple poured into their dance made it the most enchanting moment of the performance.

It’s hard to believe The Firebird made its way to the Mariinsky repertory only in 1994, nearly a century after it was commissioned by Diaghilev for Les Ballets Russes’ second European season and premiered by the Russian troupe at Theatre de l’Opera in Paris.

This ballet is significant to Russian arts on many levels. The Firebird was envisioned as the first original national Russian ballet. Fokine’s libretto was based on a combination of Russian fairytales that featured traditional folk personages such as Kashchei the Immortal, Ivan Tsarevich and the Tsarevna of Unearthly Beauty. The score for the new ballet was commissioned from the then-28-year-old and virtually unknown composer Igor Stravinsky, whose peculiar music, which brimmed with unusual sounds and textures, found little success with the public and the musicians of the Imperial Theater at that time.

The collaboration between Fokine and Stravinsky during the making of The Firebird represented “the unity of creative choreography and creative music.” “The music was afire, burning brightly and sending off sparks. That was exactly what I needed for the fiery image of the ballet,” wrote Fokine about the new score. The ballet was a smashing success and, for Stravinsky, provided a major break with the audiences and the critics. Little did Diaghilev know that, by entrusting Stravinsky with The Firebird commission, he christened the greatest ballet composer of the 20th century.

It is said that in its original incarnation, with fantastic sets and costumes by Alexander Golovin and Leon Bakst, The Firebird was a marvel to behold. The ballet became a manifestation of Russian arts, raising choreographic aesthetics and elevating the art of ballet to a totally new height.

The version presented by the Mariinsky at the Kennedy Center was a modern staging of The Firebird, a 1994 reconstruction by Isabelle Fokine (the choreographer’s granddaughter) and Andris Liepa (a former Russian star dancer with the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theater).

The redesigned decorations and costumes created by Anna and Anatoly Nezhny were handsome and effective, faithfully rendering a magical and spooky world of Russian fairytales. The centerpiece of the performance was Ekaterina Kondaurova in the title role. Dressed in a bright red tutu, she created one fascinating moment after another. With her beguiling and animated stage presence, Kondaurova was her own spectacular show, dancing with a trademark precision, intensity, and ardor. Watching her darting across the stage was a blissful thrill. She captured the essence of her role – a bold and free spirit, inspiring and energizing the entire cast.

Alexander Romanchikov gave a smart but somewhat understated rendition of the Ivan-Tsarevich, the role which was originated by Michel Fokine himself. Ekaterina Mikhailovtseva was appropriately ravishing as The Princess of Great Beauty; and Soslan Kulaev, as Kashchei the Immortal, made every effort to look nasty and malevolent despite his Halloween-like costume. But what really made my heart beat faster was the galvanizing performance of the ensemble portraying a gang of assorted monsters, witches, Kashchei’s servants and guards, as the Firebird cast her magic spell and made them dance against their will. The scene when they all moved in one unremitting vicious circle was one of the most exhilarating moments of the ballet. Here, Fokine’s genius in handling mass scenes was in a vivid focus.

The Opera House orchestra, under the baton of Alexey Repnikov performed with lush sound and panache, giving full measure to the Stravinsky’s score.

The exotic and lavishly decorated Schéhérazade concluded this remarkable program of Russian short ballets. Schéhérazade was inspired by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite of the same title, composed in 1888. Fascinated by the dazzling orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, Diaghilev asked Fokine for a new ballet with a libretto based on the first tale from the “One Thousand and One Nights.”

As presented by the Mariinsky Ballet, Schéhérazade offered a sumptuous visual feast, brimming with an extraordinary theatricality. When the curtain went up, revealing the décor of Sultan Shahriyar’s palace, the audience audibly gasped in admiration. (The dancers’ costumes as well as the set designs were masterfully recreated by Anna and Anatoly Nezhny.)

The ballet unfolded in an unhurried, meditative manner and held the audience’s attention by its utterly absorbing storytelling. Here, Fokine introduced a new innovative approach to the pantomime choreography, one in which each gesture was clearly rendered through the movements and positions of the body. From the ballet’s opening scene, when the hesitant and suspicious Shahriyar (the incomparable Vladimir Ponomarev) bid farewell to his favorite wife Zobeide (Uliana Lopatkina), every moment was full of suspense, every gesture building up the drama.

With her silkily seamless, feline movements and gorgeous features, Lopatkina as Zobeide was simply stunning: You couldn’t take your eyes off her supple, statuesque body adorned in a richly bejeweled costume. She portrayed her heroine as a supremely conflicted person, driven by passion and impulse. The allure and tenderness she brought to the role made Zobeide’s tragic death at the end all the more poignant. Daniil Korsuntsev as the Golden Slave was fittingly amorous, covering the stage with enormous jumps, his movements rapturous and intense.

The action onstage got rollicking as the Palace inhabitants, including Sultan’s wives, slaves, and odalisques, whirled in the frenzy of the wild orgy – an awe-inspiring scene, which once again demonstrated Fokine’s mastery of conjuring effective ensembles.

Balancing spectacular dancing with stirring drama, the Mariinsky dancers delivered a riveting, unforgettable performance. I left the Opera House with wonderful memories of this evening, humming the lyrical leitmotif from Schéhérazadewhich was so tenderly played during the ballet by an excellent solo violinist.

Good to see Draft Works in the larger Linbury Studio Theatre and as ever much fun to spot rising choreographic and dance stars closer than normal. Some are experienced, some not, but this is all work in the raw of working lighting, costume and recorded music, though some pushed at these constraints. Good, too, that Wayne McGregor (Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer) suggested people pass on their impressions of the pieces to the choreographers after the performance. What follows are mine but do note this is just one view of the night rather than handing out any judgements in stone – as if! If I wasn’t drawn to a piece then inevitably there would be others who enjoyed it and if I liked a piece there would be some who would not be so impressed, for sure… So in the end I say a huge well done to all involved.

Robert Binet – At the River Styx
Introduced as the new Royal Ballet (RB) Choreographic Apprentice, Binet offered a confident classical duet based on Orpheus and Eurydice to some melancholic Biber. He was greatly helped by his choice of dancers – Yuhui Choe and Ricardo Cervera, communicative and very well rehearsed. Binet (a Canadian) is young and circulating the world, sucking in experience, it seems. A little overlong but all up a pleasant, assured, apprentice piece with little kicks and flounces of freshness – his own stronger voice will surely come later.

Ludovic Ondiviela – Feathers in your Head
I liked this a lot. Again he was helped by his dancers, Lauren Cuthbertson and Bennet Gartside, both apparently unmade up and looking ‘ordinary’. About Alzheimer’s, it convincingly coupled Ondiviela’s smoother classical voice to the more twitchy contemporary voice he’s gained with Wayne McGregor in the building, to give a mixed-up world none of us want to experience. Probably the best piece of his I’ve seen and great to see him grow over the years in Draft Works.

Fernando Montano – Gallardo (Gallant)
A show-off tango piece that despite all the sell and knowing audience eye contact held no magnetism for me. Montano introduced it by saying he wanted to create a work on 2 girls but none were available and so he did something on himself and 2 chairs. He often appears in his own work and has many talents, not least as an engaging dancer and with a happy crowd-pleasing personality but it’s not clear to me yet that he is one of life’s natural choreographers. But he is a natural performer that’s for sure.

Declan Whitaker – Overtone
A solo on himself and the only choreographer not to introduce his piece. It meant some words in the programme which I think would have been a help to many of the pieces on the night. Of course I didn’t have a chance to read the notes before the show but that is beside the point! Viewed blind, I thought it was a homage to Michael Clark with leaned-back, pelvis forward, walking and also arms rigidly held behind the torso and giving occasional flutters. But others didn’t see the influence as strongly it has to be said. Very much lost in his own electronic world of wonder it worked well as an abstract piece and never in a month of Sundays would I have realised the inspiration was the slow movement of glaciers. Marked as somebody I’d like to see again.

Kristen McNally – Lonesome Gun
In a very nice way one thinks of McNally as being ‘mad as a hatter’ and this cowboy-meets-Quentin-Tarantino/Pulp Fiction piece featured a good collection of Stetsons as a starter. Consistently McNally turns in the most original experimental work based on arresting themes – and I applaud her for it. I might not always make sense of all the bits but I always grin or warm to some deeper moments. After The Good The Bad and The Ugly start there was an intense duet for Thomas Whitehead and Hayley Forskitt – later-day inhabitants of the West, I fancy, and a beautiful solo to some naive guitar from the film The Proposition (by Nick Cave). I always think where next? When and where might her quirky self settle down choreographically? And we still have no idea, but my goodness what an amazing ride it is. I think, though, she needs much more opportunity to hone her ideas and skills.

Erico Montes – Within the Hours
Montes always comes across as very serious in his approach to creating work and keen to differentiate what he does from the rest. In this case his was the only piece of the night to have live music (piano and cello) and it is a custom score too. He also secured the service of 7 seasoned dancers and filled the stage with, for the most part, classroom classicism. He confidently creates groups and poses, adds some quirks, like dips and high arms and I see an affable piece but I want to fast forward through it all the time.

Thomas Whitehead – i lean & bob
A new choreographic find, Tom Whitehead creates his first piece and a short, fun and punchy thing it is too. To a jaunty Latin tune (Kringle by Analogik) Sian Murphy and Ryoichi Hirano emerge from the audience to bop away in an all-American, Twyla Tharp, social dance style for 4 minutes. My goodness that’s a mouthful and far too heavy for a much appreciated piece that left you wanting a little more.

Simon Rice – Grace
I haven’t followed Simon Rice since his days with the Royal Ballet performing as the Jester in Cinderella and such like and he helpfully explained that he’s moved on into physical theatre and recently formed a contemporary company, Abundance. I rather warmed to his work for 4 girls (from his company and not RB) which constantly flowed and circled. I won’t say any of the movement was a startling revelation but its never-let-up-at-all quality and the strong dancing made me happy. And a good contrast to much else on the night. I look forward to picking up the threads with Rice.

Tamara Rojo – Into the Woods
There was a lot going on in this piece in which Rojo has choreographed on others for the first time. One of ballets greatest communicators on stage, and in person the height of clarity when she talks, I thought I had this piece sussed. A duet for young Camille Bracher and older soloist Jose Martin, her leg was attached to a rope and she couldn’t escape his love; fights happen followed by reconciliation and she comes to accept the rope and bounds him in it too. That’s love for you and a neat way of showing the ups and downs of it all, I thought. But there is another darker telling: that this is based on a Natascha Kampusch child-abuse theme, where Kampusch is the Austrian girl abducted aged 10 and held in a basement for 8 years and after release felt (in part at least) sorry for the man who had done this to her. Armed with this chilly take on ‘love’ I’d very much like to see it again. Well I’d like to see it again anyway – an absorbing piece.

Valentino Zucchetti – Brandenburg Divertissement
The highlight of the evening for many and easy to see why it was last up – to send everybody out happy. A well-constructed piece of neo-classicism that would have Balanchine smiling at just how cleverly a new boy can move 8 dancers to fill a stage and dazzle. Where others perhaps toiled classically Zucchetti seemed effortlessly to hit the button. Good piece for a school is that.

A statement from The Royal Ballet

Dame Monica Mason announced this afternoon that Principal Sergei Polunin has resigned from The Royal Ballet with immediate effect.

Born in the Ukraine, Sergei joined The Royal Ballet in 2007 from The Royal Ballet School. He rose rapidly through the ranks and was promoted to Principal at the end of the 2009/ 10 season aged just 19.

Speaking about the announcement, Monica Mason said: “This has obviously come as a huge shock, Sergei is a wonderful dancer and I have enjoyed watching him tremendously, both on stage and in the studio, tremendously over the past few years. I wish him every success in the future.”

Some brief words about the event later but I wanted to get the press release up soonest with those all important winners – congratulations to all involved including all those nominated:UK National Dance Awards – The Nominees

Pleased to say some pictures of the event will be released later.

The 12th National Dance Awards
The Place, London: 23rd January 2012

The Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for 2011 took place today in London at The Place’s Robin Howard Dance Theatre.

The awards are decided by the 60 members of the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle after an extensive round of nominations and voting. To be eligible, performances had to be given in the UK between 1st September 2010 and 31st August 2011

Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Awards committee, Graham Watts OBE, said: ‘These awards emphasise the UK’s thriving dance culture and it is wonderful to see so many superb artists and companies nominated by the dance critics for 2011. We are especially delighted to have come to the home of contemporary dance in London for the awards ceremony.’

For the second year, the Master of Ceremonies was the Chief Executive of The Place, Kenneth Tharp OBE, who said: ‘The National Dance Awards are a hugely important moment in the annual calendar for us all to celebrate the most memorable achievements in dance from the past year. As both a natural home and springboard for the careers of so many artists, we are delighted this year to be hosting the awards here at The Place for the first time. Warmest congratulations to all those who have been nominated.’

Obituary: Rudi van Dantzig
by Ted Brandsen
“Inspiring, passionate, intense and true to himself – these are the first words that spring to mind when I think of Rudi.”Net Nationale Ballet website

Obituary: Rudi van Dantzig
“His work radiated style and colour. It looked fantastic. That was his strongest side.”DutchNews.nl

REVIEW: New York City BalletDiving Into Sea, and Then Gershwin
Ocean’s Kingdom, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Who Cares
USA, New York, David H. Koch Theater
Dancers: Bouder, Fairchild R, Hyltin, Kikta, La Cour, Mearns, Pazcoguin, Ramasar, Somogyi
by Gia Kourlas
“Ocean’s Kingdom, first performed in September, is as plodding as ever: four movements of static choreography by Mr. Martins, along with blandly sweeping music and a convoluted libretto by Mr. McCartney.”New York TimesSlideshow

REVIEW: Erica Essner Performance Co-opClouding Together for a Storm, and Shedding Light on Immigration Stories
FLICfest 2012: Weathered
USA, New York, Irondale Center
by Claudia La Rocco
“Ms. Essner favors handsome modern-dance phrases that make for pretty, polite pictures. Weathered never convinces that it exists to do more than serve as a framework for these images …”New York Times

REVIEW: Keith A ThompsonClouding Together for a Storm, and Shedding Light on Immigration Stories
FLICfest 2012: Beginnings Forever Lost
USA, New York, Irondale Center
by Claudia La Rocco
“There are intriguing moments. But … Beginnings Forever Lost feels hardly formed, as if Mr. Thompson’s ideas needed to simmer for a good deal longer, so that the work’s didactic message and slippery choreographic logic might find a better meeting point.”New York Times

REVIEW: Rubberbandance GroupHip-hop and ballet in a soulful blend
Gravity of Center
USA, Philadelphia, Annenberg Center
Dancers: Hoglund, Le Phan, Mayo, Plamandon, Quijada
by Merilyn Jackson
“I like seeing hip-hop danced raw on the street, but seeing it danced more slowly and by well-trained dancers like these is like eating tournedos de boeuf instead of hot dogs. There’s nothing wrong with hotdogging on the street, but it can go only so far.”Philadelphia Inquirer

REVIEW: China Jinling Dance CompanyA Technicolor Garden
The Peony Pavilion
USA, New York, David H. Koch Theater
Dancers: Bo, Xinyu, Yanfeng
by Gus Solomons jr
“Pavilion reflects its culture, created to play to thousands in arena-sized venues. Everything about it is big –- even the lovers’ intimate moments reach to the rafters. No need to fill in with your imagination; it’s all spread out in a lavish visual feast.”Gay City News

Q&A: Lighting Designer Michael Hulls
by Ismene Brown
“Lighting designers are either wizards or useful pedants. They scrupulously light the action or they make light speak its own language, activating space, time, illusion, imagination – inventing effects that your blinking eyes can only consider as magic.”The Arts Desk

Wendy Whelan: A Dancer Who Can Remember The Giants
by Claudia La Rocco
“If Wendy Whelan were a Hollywood star, glossy profiles about her would forever be opening with vignettes underlining how remarkably down to earth and likable she is …”New York Times

Johan Kobborg – a noted dancer’s first choreographic steps
by Carrie Seidman
“Anything I do besides my own dancing is play for me, in a sense,” he said. “And I’ve enjoyed the process. I love getting an idea and trying to bring it to life. To get it out of my brain and my body and into someone else’s.”Sarasota Herald Tribune

Backstage at the Ballet with the comedy team of Kobborg & Webb
by Carrie Seidman
“‘I only spoke to you because Baryshnikov was supposed to be coming to Denmark and I saw the eyes and the height…I was certain your first name was Mischa,’ Kobborg recalled.”Sarasota Herald Tribune

Preview: Mark Morris’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Washington
by Sarah Kaufman
“That he relied on dancing, and dancing alone, to tell this sprawling story of human existence that he had in his head since first hearing the music several years earlier is telling. There is no other choreographer today with Morris’s unbound imagination and the skill to realize it onstage.”Washington Post

Youth America Grand Prix brings prestige to ballet competition world
by Carrie Seidman
“The winners – and even many of those who don’t receive medals – dance away with a lot more than just a cheap souvenir: YAGP awards more than $250,000 in scholarships annually to top schools both in and outside the United States.”Sarasota Herald Tribune

This week’s new dance (UK)
by Judith Mackrell
“Ivan Putrov: Men In Motion; The Royal Ballet: Draft Works.”The Guardian

Some performers seek different career path after last dance
by Mark Kanny
“I’m starting over from scratch. I really would like to be a history professor,” she says. “Medieval history has been an incredible passion my entire life. Stopping dancing was huge. It has been a huge part of my identity. All my friends were dancers. I knew it would take another passion to help me through the transition.”Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Seattle dancer Ezra Dickinson: What can’t he do?
by Michael Upchurch
“There’s a creaturely intensity to Dickinson’s performing style. There can also be plenty of humor. In a solo number Dickinson does with the Castaways, he goes into a handstand that he holds without a quiver until he gets applause …”Seattle Times

Don’t forget – Balanchine’s birthday tomorrow
by Roslyn Sulcas
“It’s the 108th anniversary of GEORGE BALANCHINE’s birth on Sunday, and New York City Ballet hasn’t missed the opportunity to celebrate with a day called, yes, Sunday at the Ballet With George.”New York Times

Scottish Ballet’s Eve MutsoEve’s lengthy legs are a must for regal ballet role
Uncredited
“Mutso laughed: ‘I am five feet seven, I am on pointes and I am long-limbed. Sometimes my legs live their own life – and I have to try to keep control of them.’”Inverness Courier

Director Frederick Wiseman on Burlesque Doc Crazy Horse
by Steve Erickson
“I don’t understand all the fuss about showing naked people. All men and women know what naked men and women look like. We know what ourselves look like in the shower. If you’re in a relationship, you’ve seen your partner naked. You’ve probably seen your sisters and brothers naked.”Studio Daily

Resolution! 2012

REVIEW: Giorgio de Carolis and Elena Zaino
Resolution! 2012: Bunga Bunga
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: De Carolis, Zaino
by Keith Watson
“Forced to improvise and open up, suddenly their dance came alive.”The Place

REVIEW: Giorgio de Carolis and Elena Zaino
Resolution! 2012: Bunga Bunga
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: De Carolis, Zaino
by Jeffrey Gordon Baker
“…both were clearly capable movers, but a technical glitch completely stalled the pair, despite several audience members gamely entreating them to ‘just keep dancing!’ Advice they sadly didn’t heed.”The Place

REVIEW: Non Applicable Dance Collective
Resolution! 2012: Bi-Winning
UK, London, The Place
by Keith Watson
“…started brightly …But as this satirical take on how we try make ourselves into what we want to be gathered physical speed, it ran out of ideas.”The Place

REVIEW: Non Applicable Dance Collective
Resolution! 2012: Bi-Winning
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Mcguines, Myers, Quick, Ryan
by Jeffrey Gordon Baker
“What the piece lacked in cohesion and thematic consistency …it made up for in smiles, brought on by the fun that was clearly being had by these four sweetly geeky women.”The Place

REVIEW: Matthew Huy
Resolution! 2012: After Happily Ever After
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Huy, Walker
by Keith Watson
“From the disparate music choices to dance that shifted gear without an emotional core, this was pretty dancing but little more.”The Place

REVIEW: Matthew Huy
Resolution! 2012: After Happily Ever After
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Huy, Walker
by Jeffrey Gordon Baker
“…Mr Huy and partner Emma Louise Walker were pleasantly exhilarated by their own rushing leaps and Time-of-My-Life lifts even if the choreography felt a bit trite and dated, at times awkwardly executed.”

The PlaceREVIEW: Black Gecko Dance
Resolution! 2012: We Have Won
UK, London, The Place
by Lyndsey Winship
“…it needs a bit more punch. More like a playground scrap than an all-out battle.”The Place

REVIEW: Black Gecko Dance
Resolution! 2012: We Have Won
UK, London, The Place
by Rachel Donnelly
“This was a deft and solid piece, with some strong choreography from Georgie Hay and Grace Sellwood, although the central concept lacked complexity.”The Place

REVIEW: Saad
Resolution! 2012: Think_outside
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Wild
by Lyndsey Winship
“It’s not a bad piece, but neither does it quite soar.”The Place

REVIEW: Jindeok Park with thisnowthis
Resolution! 2012: A Downpour
UK, London, The Place
by Lyndsey Winship
“But when the text finally coalesces into something narrative, and we realise we’ve been listening to mixed up fragments of a sane story all along, we have to ask: did we miss the method in the movement too? An answer isn’t readily forthcoming.”The Place

REVIEW: Jindeok Park with thisnowthis
Resolution! 2012: A Downpour
UK, London, The Place
by Rachel Donnelly
“However, despite a strong ending, the connection between the words and the choreography is not always apparent and the overall effect was one of distraction.”

The PlaceREVIEW: Neshima Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: Beyond Words
UK, London, The Place
by Graham Watts
“Neshima is an unpretentious and engaging ensemble, directed with an eye for interesting structure and diversity by Batel Magen.”The Place

REVIEW: Neshima Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: Beyond Words
UK, London, The Place
by Natalia Okeke
“With a refreshing irony, Beyond Words clearly communicates the complexities of the inability to speak.”The Place

REVIEW: Lindy Nsingo
Resolution! 2012: Self
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Nsingo
by Graham Watts
“…Nsingo’s authoritative performance commanded attention although – at 25 minutes – the work was at least a section too long.”The Place

REVIEW: Tourlander
Resolution! 2012: Don’t Say It Was A Dream
UK, London, The Place
by Graham Watts
“Her six dancers attacked the movement with a seductive, infectious sharpness and joy.”The Place

REVIEW: Tourlander
Resolution! 2012: Don’t Say It Was A Dream
UK, London, The Place
by Natalia Okeke
“In these closing moments a ukulele version of Somewhere over the Rainbow plays and, although quaint, hinders the strength of the rest of the piece.”The Place

REVIEW: Joss Arnott Dance
Resolution! 2012: 24
UK, London, The Place
by Sanjoy Roy
“The piece went down a storm, but I found it all effect and no substance. It also gave me a sense of deja vu…”The Place

REVIEW: Joss Arnott Dance
Resolution! 2012: 24
UK, London, The Place
by Germaine Cheng
“…one cannot help but think of Arnott as the dance equivalent of Wayne McGregor and Hofesh Shechter’s lovechild.”The Place

REVIEW: Jemma Bicknell
Resolution! 2012: Please Not Mine
UK, London, The Place
by Sanjoy Roy
“Wet blankets of morose indie music contribute to the sense of a creative spark that hasn’t caught hold.”The Place

REVIEW: Jemma Bicknell
Resolution! 2012: Please Not Mine
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Armstrong
by Germaine Cheng
“Please Not Mine is the heartfelt cry of a woman witnessing the utter bedlam in the capital city, valiantly maintaining a shred of hope amidst her intensifying fear.”The Place

REVIEW: Thom Rackett Company
Resolution! 2012: You Just Live
UK, London, The Place
by Sanjoy Roy
“With apple-eating, newspaper-stuffing and blasts of operatic arias, it’s pretty discombobulating, but you feel that you have just lived a little.”The Place

REVIEW: Thom Rackett Company
Resolution! 2012: You Just Live
UK, London, The Place
by Germaine Cheng
“A young man is caught in a world where the herd mentality once again prevails.”The Place

REVIEW: Kip Johnson
Resolution! 2012: Birthday
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Johnson
by Rachel Donnelly
“The end sequence, in which Kip worms his way, spotlit, across the floor, was the most affecting part of the performance, concluding the top contribution of the night.”The Place

REVIEW: Tiffany Gibson and Virginia Munday
Resolution! 2012: Maybe We Should
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Gibson, Munday
by Keith Watson
“A sharper sense of story – and a splash of music – would have helped, but Maybe We Should had a low-key charm.”The Place

REVIEW: Tiffany Gibson and Virginia Munday
Resolution! 2012: Maybe We Should
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Gibson, Munday
by Jeffrey Gordon Baker
“There was sweetness in the friends’ cuddles and quarrels, but choreography-wise the piece was a collection of non-committal pedestrian gestures…”The Place

REVIEW: Dirty Feet Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: Out of Nowhere
UK, London, The Place
by Keith Watson
“…a raw edge, unsettling emotions given a visceral edge – this is a company to look out for.”The Place

REVIEW: Dirty Feet Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: Out of Nowhere
UK, London, The Place
by Jeffrey Gordon Baker
“…despite the anti-story eventually getting boring and the adolescent posturing notwithstanding, this was the most wholly realised work of the night.”The Place

REVIEW: Needlefoot Dance Theatre Company
Resolution! 2012: She Knocked Three Times
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Corday
by Keith Watson
“It’s quite hard to make a work about the Marquis de Sade that’s stripped of all eroticism, but Needlefoot Dance Theatre pulled it off…”The Place

In Memoriam Rudi van Dantzig 1933-2012
No English-language obituaries yet of the great Dutch dancer, director, choreographer who died yesterday.
YouTube

REVIEW: New York City BalletElegant, fascinatin’ dancing starts with Mr. B
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Who Cares, Le Tombeau de Couperin
USA, New York, David H. Koch Theater
Dancers: Bouder, Fairchild R, Mearns, Peck, Veyette
by Leigh Witchel
“Once upon a time, Ashley Bouder was Tiler Peck. Now in her late 20s, she makes Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux a star vehicle with her sophisticated accenting, vivid personality and bravura technique.”New York Post

REVIEW: New York City BalletNew York City Ballet, Beginning with Balanchine
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Who Cares, Le Tombeau de Couperin
USA, New York, David H. Koch Theater
Dancers: Bouder, Fairchild M, Fairchild R, Mearns, Peck, Pollack, Reichlen, Stanley, Ulbricht
by Margaret Fuhrer
“Then she fell during her variation, and lost a bit of her swagger. There it was, suddenly: vulnerability. Bouder is so much more appealing as a human than a superhuman. When she stops pointing out her own strengths, they become more impressive.”Huffington Post

REVIEW: Meg StuartMeg Stuart’s BLESSED: Channelling Beckett
Blessed
USA, New York, New York Live Arts
Dancers: Camacho, Hurtado, Nishiwaki
by Susan Yung
“we empathize with Camacho’s sorry state – getting soaked to the bone literally and metaphorically, with nowhere to hide, watching his entire world dissolve into ephemera. And yet, like Beckett’s finest, he survives, for better or worse.”SundayArts

REVIEW: Young Jean Lee
Untitled Feminist Show
USA, New York, Baryshnikov Arts Center
Dancers: BOB, Clark, Zirin-Brown, Blackwell, Pyle, Rocke
by Hilton Als
“Young Jean Lee’s Untitled Feminist Show is one of the more moving and imaginative works I have ever seen on the American stage. Its gravity is spiritual and not entirely intellectual …”New Yorker

REVIEW: Molissa FenleyCovering Ground with Cage and Glass
Credo in Us, The Vessel Stories
USA, New York, Judson Memorial Church
Dancers: Fenley, Kao, Neville, Small, Wilson
by Deborah Jowitt
“The whole of The Vessel Stories is imbued with Fenley’s spare elegance in terms of form, the tensile strength of her movements, and an almost joyous, relieving attack on space, as if she had acres she could cover if she had a mind to.”Arts Journal

Flash moves: the 360 degree dance project
by Judith Mackrell
“Hughes places his dancer inside a circle of 48 cameras, which are networked up to take a simultaneous image of what he calls a ‘peak’ moment of action – a jump, an arabesque, a slide.”The Guardian

Another American Dancer Joins a Russian Ballet Company
by Daniel J. Wakin
“Keenan Kampa, a member of the Boston Ballet and a rare American to attend the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, is joining the Mariinsky Ballet.”New York Times

La La La Human Steps’s New Work moves at the speed of light
by Janet Smith
“The choreographer … now shifts his interest to two iconic operas: Henry Purcell’s 17th-century Dido and Aeneas and Cristoph Gluck’s 18th-century Orfeo ed Euridice. Like most of the company’s pieces since the late 1990s, New Work will be performed en pointe.”Vancouver Straight

Neumeier and Hamburg Ballet go to China this year
by Chen Jie
“This time, Hamburg Ballet brings to Beijing and Shanghai, Neumeier’s signature works Nijinsky and Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler.”China Daily

Cranko’s Onegin opens SF Ballet season
by Janos Gereben
“Opera audiences in The City have seen and heard Tchaikovsky’s 1879 Eugene Onegin dozens of blissful times, but John Cranko’s 1965 Onegin, opening next week, is a San Francisco Ballet premiere.”San Francisco Examiner

Ashley Page’s Sleeping Beauty for Scottish BalletDark beauty of a treasured fairytale
Uncredited
“Principal dancer Claire Robertson has been with the company for 18 years, and says that Sleeping Beauty holds special meaning for her as it was one of the first ballets that Ashley created for her.”Aberdeen Press and Journal

Atlanta dance scene to take big leap Off the EDGE with weeklong festival
by Chelsea Thomas
“The inaugural edition of Off the EDGE, a weeklong contemporary dance festival, is gaining momentum daily as participating dance companies and artists feed off of mounting enthusiasm.”ArtsCriticATL

REVIEW: New York City BalletCurtain Rises on a Season Aloft
The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Who Cares, Le Tombeau de Couperin
USA, New York, David H. Koch Theater
Dancers: Bouder, Fairchild M, Peck, Ulbricht, Veyette
by Claudia La Rocco
“opening night … was an oddly low-energy and at times ragged affair. It had its highlights, to be sure, but the overall feel was dispiriting, in stark contrast to the generally marvelous onstage spirits that the dancers have exhibited in recent seasons.”New York Times

REVIEW: Mariinsky BalletMariinsky Ballet shines in Fokine program
Russian Seasons: Chopiniana, The Firebird, Scheherazade
USA, Washington, Kennedy Center
Dancers: Kondaurova, Korsuntsev, Lopatkina, Ostreikovskaya
by Sarah Kaufman
“several of the performances were quite wonderful, particularly Xenia Ostreykovskaya in the tender Prelude role in Chopiniana. There was suppleness and breath in her dancing, and great delicacy. And, a sense of the body harmonizing with the Chopin, and with its candlelight mood.”Washington Post

REVIEW: Russian State Ballet of Siberia
Giselle
UK, Oxford, New Theatre
Dancers: Kuimova, Litvinenko
by David Bellan
“I have admired Maria Kuimova … for some years now, but had never seen her Giselle. She did not disappoint.”Oxford Times

Preview: Story/Time, Jones channels Cage?Bill T. Jones Takes a Turn on the Stage in New Work
by Felicia R. Lee
“Story/Time, a co-commission of Peak Performances and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis was inspired by the composer John Cage’s Indeterminacy, first performed in 1958, a series of one-minute spoken-word stories that was different each time it was performed and was eventually recorded as an album.”New York Times

Preview: Stanton Welch’s Cinderella for Houston BalletCinderella: She’s No Disney Princess, But She’s a Real Role Model
by Marene Gustin
“It’s a very feminist ballet,” Welch says. “What do you want to tell your daughter today? That someday someone will come along and save you, or that someday you’ll have a wonderful life of your own?”Playbill Arts

Company C Contemporary Ballet turns 10, flying high
by Claudia Bauer
“First there were the all-ballerina shows, because Company C didn’t have any male dancers yet. Then came the all-leotard performances, because that’s what the costume budget allowed. And always, there was the multitasking.”San Francisco Chronicle

Tony Nominee Adam Cooper on His Leap from Ballet to Musicals in London’s Singin’ in the Rain
by Matt Wolf
“Cooper is set to returen to the West End’s Palace Theatre on February 4 as the above-the-title star of the latest stage production of Singin’ in the Rain, first seen last summer at the Chichester Festival Theatre.”Broadway.com

Preview: Edouard Lock’s New WorkLa La La Human Steps embarks on a labyrinth of memory and myth
by Kevin Griffin
“Ballet technique is amply able to carry contemporary themes. If the technique is to survive, it has to be a living technique. It has to somehow correspond to the contemporary world and not just reference older work.”Vancouver Sun

DVD review: Three Ballets by Kenneth MacMillan
by Steven Ritter
“The Royal Ballet, with its close association with Macmillan, renders a superb tribute to its former director on a highly-desirable disc recorded wonderfully and in resplendent high-def video, nicely captured by sensitive and appropriate camerawork.”Audiophile Audition

ABT dancers talk about dancing, what they wear – stuff like that
(Video)Stylelikeu

This is the last thing I expected to be announcing – a new magazine called DanceTabs that will live at www.dancetabs.com (nothing to see yet folks so no need to click!)

I think my post about Balletco going into Archive captured many of my feelings after 15½ years following through on many different aspects of what a ballet/dance website could be… and the sheer workload making it no longer possible or fun. But it was great fun when I started and over Christmas I thought much about what I am passionate about in dance and could I nudge things forward in a way that is both fun and productive.

Balletco started very much because I felt fans and the audience needed to have a place to talk about ballet and dance. That’s so much the case now wherever you look on the net. What drives me now and has this last year or two is providing a place for professional criticism and coverage of dance/ballet. It’s a shrinking world for pukka criticism and I really worry about the professional voice being lost in a sea of much social happiness.

DanceTabs is just going to be a magazine – no forum, no TodaysLinks (and its huge attendant database) – just Reviews, Galleries, Interviews and News items. The contributors will largely be names you know already and to which I look to add - I continue to want it to take a world view. It will use technology similar to the Balletco redesign but will be hosted in specialist space I don’t have to worry so much about. The gallery area will be hosted differently. Time is short – the launch will be in early February and while I would like to do different designs I may just use the recent Balletco ones with a few light modifications.

Some of you may think that this was all part of some grand strategy known at the outset – it wasn’t and I didn’t expect to do anything substantive again in dance. It will be interesting to see where this initiative gets to – it’s not a popular thing to do, to concentrate on professional views, instead of looking to be a big social cheese(!), but it’s something I’m passionate about and want to see done right by – or as right as I can make it.

I’ll say more later; in the meantime I hope you will celebrate with and for me and I wish you great dance in 2012 and beyond.

Obituary: Niles Ford, Dancer and Choreographer
by Jennifer Dunning
“With a long-boned body seemingly as pliant as warm taffy, Mr. Ford was a dancer of quiet intelligence, understated sweetness and intense focus.”New York Times

NYCB’s Megan Fairchild overcomes her reservationsBlooming in the Bright Lights
by Pia Catton
“I lost myself completely – getting promoted and feeling not ready, wishing I had more time behind the scenes, then being shot out in front and being critiqued while I’m figuring it out.”Wall Street Journal

REVIEW: Hiroaki Umeda2 stars
Haptic, Holistic Strata
UK, London, Linbury Studio Theatre
Dancers: Umeda
by Judith Mackrell
“One man, a few wonderful lighting ideas and some very brutal noise can make for a very long evening.”Guardian

REVIEW: Hiroaki Umeda3 stars
Haptic, Holistic Strata
UK, London, Linbury Studio Theatre
Dancers: Umeda
by Zoe Anderson
“Mixing dance, computer imagery and video projection, Umeda surrounds and transforms himself with shifting light, then stops. He refuses to develop the images or ideas: there they are, take it or leave it.”Independent

REVIEW: Young Jean Lee4 stars
Untitled Feminist Show
USA, New York, Baryshnikov Arts Center
Dancers: BOB, Zirin-Brown
by Apollinaire Scherr
“Young Jean Lee has a reputation for sending issues that any self-respecting liberal assumes he has a handle on in squirm-inducing directions. But Untitled Feminist Show is less a thought-provoking trap than a taste of utopia.”Financial Times

REVIEW: Young Jean LeeLive, nude, funny women
Untitled Feminist Show
USA, New York, Baryshnikov Arts Center
Dancers: Zirin-Brown, Clark
by Elisabeth Vincentelli
“The six women in Untitled Feminist Show are stark naked for the entire hour, during which they perform swoony pas de deux, energetic aerobics, comic pantomimes and assorted calisthenics in their birthday suits.”New York Post

REVIEW: Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterUp, Down and Sideways
Arden Court
USA, New York, City Center
by Joel Lobenthal
“It wasn’t always easy or comfortable for them to recreate Taylor’s overarching and paradoxical tone of balletic burliness, but they pulled it off – and with panache, I almost don’t have to add.”City Arts

REVIEW: Merce Cunningham Dance CompanyUp, Down and Sideways
Park Avenue Armory Event
USA, New York, Park Avenue Armory
by Joel Lobenthal
“There was a certain poignancy in not being able to totally apprehend all of the movement information being transmitted, particularly since this was our final opportunity to see this company.”City Arts

REVIEW: Daniel LinehanZombies and Blackboards
Zombie Aphoria
USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center
Dancers: Lac, Linehan, Rosengren
by Susan Yung
“Working with spoken and sung words as much as dance, at times they took directives from a laptop, or one another; recombining verses, moving in a naively appealing style.”SundayArts

REVIEW: Michael KlienZombies and Blackboards
Choreography for Blackboards
USA, New York, Invisible Dog Art Center
Dancers: Manwelyan
by Susan Yung
“The concept held far more potential than the experience, at least for the viewer.”SundayArts

REVIEW: Meg StuartSurviving the Flood
Blessed
USA, New York, New York Live Arts
Dancers: Camacho
by Deborah Jowitt
“Camacho, who had a hand in the creation of BLESSED, enacts this harrowing scenario magnificently. At times, you can hardly bear to watch him labor at constructing something out of total ruin.”Arts JournalFalls Bridge dance festival

Tsiskaridze reprievedBolshoi Star Keeps Teacher Job
“I never requested anything from Bolshoi Theater management. I just explained my point-of-view and said I would be complaining to appropriate authorities in case the contract’s terminated.”RIA Novosti

Necessarily So: Porgy and Bess May Not Be Known as a Dance Show but Its Choreography Can Make a Difference
by Robert Gottlieb
“Porgy and Bess has never been thought of as a dance show, and yet it’s filled with dance. It uses dance to punctuate the action, or as background, or as atmosphere; even when it’s front and center it isn’t crucial.”New York Observer

Film review: Crazy Horse by Frederick WisemanThe Agony Behind an Erotic Club’s Ecstasy
by A.O. Scott
“Ali Mahdavi … declares that the French government should make attendance at Crazy Horse mandatory for all citizens as an educational experience and an acknowledgment of the institution’s place in the nation’s cultural patrimony.”New York Times

Film review: Butt Seriously – Life is an Erotic Cabaret in Crazy Horse
by Melissa Anderson
“the filmmaker’s exceptional artistry restores the faith of those wearied by the glut of cruddy-looking and poorly structured documentaries from the past decade – vapid celebrity profiles, “journeys” of one kind or another, half-thought-out polemics.”Village Voice

Preview: Keely Garfield brings her surreal autobiography style to Twin Pines
by Susan Reiter
“A highly regarded, thoughtful and instinctive choreographer whose pieces delve deeply while integrating flashes of wit, she notes that her ongoing work with yoga and Zen practices is closely connected to her work in dance.”City Arts

The RA’s David Hockney exhibition with a little tap at the end
by Richard Godwin
“A group of dancers choreographed by Hockney’s old friend Wayne Sleep move around to a piano. In the penultimate dance, the Royal Ballet dancer Steven McRae steps onto a blue rectangle and begins to tap dance. Hockney and Sleep watched the performance together, both rhapsodising the particular shade of blue.”Evening Standard

Book review: The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca
by John Fraser
“Amongst those who knew her well enough, the book will arouse both remembered dread and renewed respect.”Macleans.ca

The Boss: Personal Indulgences No. 21A career in dance criticism
by Tobi Tobias
“Bill Como, Dance magazine’s editor in chief….rescued my maiden efforts from the pile of unsolicited manuscripts about to be returned to sender and said, “Have this girl come in and see me.””Arts Journal

NYCB Preview: Revisiting Romeo + JulietSterling Hyltin and Robert Fairchild return to the roles they originated in Peter Martins’ production
by Terry Trucco
“Looking back, Hytin and Fairchild marvel at the freedom Martins gave them in shaping their characters.”Playbill

REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by Sarah Frater
“Survivor is not as theatrically coherent, and it often rambles, but it is surely a think-piece that will fuel further stage creations.”Stage

REVIEW: Twyla TharpSin City-charged revue ‘Come Fly Away’ does right by Ol’ Blue Eyes
Come Fly Away
USA, Chicago, Bank of America Theatre
Dancers: Dibble, Esquibel, Miles, Selya, Todorowski
by Chris Jones
“But for all the show’s contrasts, there are few moments when the bodies of the dancers relax. There is nary a second when anyone admits defeat or even the chance to let down their guard.”Chicago Tribune

REVIEW: Ishmael Houston-JonesWayward Children Of the ’80s
American Realness Festival: Knife/Tape/Rope
USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center
Dancers: Pheiffer, Walsh
by Brian Seibert
“Yet the tongue-in-cheek framing of the work as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drugs and heavy metal only underlined the age of the material.”New York Times

REVIEW: Yvonne MeierWayward Children Of the ’80s
American Realness Festival: Mad Heidi
USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center
Dancers: Wexler
by Brian Seibert
“But each section was slack internally, one underdeveloped idea strung onto the next.”New York Times

REVIEW: Joseph MillsBrief flight before the fall of ‘Angels’
Questions About Angels
USA, New York, Theater for the New City
Dancers: Mills
by Leigh Witchel
““Angels” has a few simple, lovely effects ……But there’s a lot of padding and the choreography is in one gear….”New York Post

English National Ballet takes steps to help sufferers of Parkinson’s
by Rob Parsons
“ENB hopes its Dance for Parkinson’s scheme will improve patients’ quality of life….The scheme has now been backed with £97,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation which will see it expand from London to four satellite programmes across Britain.”

REVIEW: Royal BalletA couple off-stage bring Latin blood and smells to the evergreen ballet classic
Romeo and Juliet
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Cervera, Hamilton, Hristov, McGorian, McNally, Mendizabal, Nunez, Soares, Whitehead
by Ismene Brown
“While Nuñez is the finer stylist of the two, Soares is one of the most talented stage creatures the Royal Ballet has had for years, and the two of them danced it as if for the last time.”The Arts Desk

Ballet’s men step out of the shadowsNo pointe shoes, more freedom and very big leaps… why men are having a moment
by Judith Mackrell
“”Over the last 100 years, there has been a transformation. Men are no longer just princes – they can be anything.”"Guardian

REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter2 stars
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by Richard Fairman
“Given the combined talents of its two creators …… Survivor offers thin pickings for a show that lasts almost an hour and a half.”Financial Times

San Francisco Ballet plays to its strengths in 2012 seasonInterview with Director, Helgi Tomasson
by Mary Ellen Hunt
“”There is no formula,” he says tilting his head back after thinking for a moment, “there is really only gut instinct. I like taking chances on people, on new choreography and choreographers.”"SF Chronicle

REVIEW: Jennifer LaceyTrying to Divine the Future Despite a Few Limitations
American Realness Festival: Gattica
USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center
Dancers: Lacey
by Brian Seibert
“Ms. Lacey created it for a festival in Vienna in 2008, but this version seemed perfectly matched to the family reunion, artists-performing-for-artists atmosphere of American Realness.”New York Times

Sydney Preview: “Beautiful Burnout” A melding of dance and drama reveals the beauty and brutality of a much-maligned sport
by Elissa Blake
“…Frantic Assembly’s fighting-fit actors punch, skip, jump and dance through a fiercely aggressive show that lays out the beauty and the horrors of the sport.”Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney Preview: “Beautiful Burnout” Dance to music of boxing
by Tim Douglas
“Directors and choreographers Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett bring Lavery’s work to life in a production that blurs the line between movement and method.”The Australian

Dennis Nahat removed as AD at Ballet San JoseA graceful transition still eludes the embattled company
by Mary Ellen Hunt
“Now, founder Dennis Nahat, whose future with the company had been in question, confirmed this week that he has received a letter from Executive Director Stephanie Ziesel removing him as artistic director.”SF Chronicle

REVIEW: Hofesh ShechterThe spaciousness and daring are wonderful
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by Kate Kellaway
“It was for this reason alone that I tried not to lean too heavily on the title as a guide. Yet I was struck by one thing: Survivor is in the singular in what is an overpoweringly plural piece.”Observer

REVIEW: Royal Ballet
Romeo and Juliet
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Acosta, Rojo
by Jenny Gilbert
“….Carlos Acosta (40 next birthday) and Tamara Rojo (known to be planning her next move), who together set the bar for later casts. Both are at their stupendous peak as the teenage lovers – no suspension of disbelief required.”Independent

REVIEW: Replica Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: 414
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Bendell, Pickard
by Luke Jennings
“…. reworking of Brief Encounter covering ground that has long been trodden flat.”Observer

REVIEW: Ffin 2
Resolution! 2012: The Art of Riot
UK, London, The Place
by Luke Jennings
“….. promised to say something about last year’s disturbances, and then didn’t. ”Observer

Alabama Preview: Dance Theatre of HarlemProgram to welcome the curious
by Lawrence F. Specker
“Tuesday evening the ensemble will take a different approach for a show that is open to the public. But even though the balance of this later show puts more emphasis on performance, it’s still designed specifically to help newcomers appreciate what they’re seeing.”Mobile Press-Register

Film Review: “Pina”3-D takes ‘Pina’ to perfection
by Hedy Weiss
“…Wenders has made what might very well be the most extraordinary dance film created to date. It is an astonishing, altogether masterful 3-D documentary….”Chicago Sun-Times

Dancers improvise to survive in L.A.The area may not be the easiest place for professional artists to make a living, but the determined often work multiple jobs to make it happen.
by Laura Bleiberg
“So what makes a dancer come to and stay in L.A.? And what are their lives like? The dancers interviewed for this story moved here for various reasons. But they have stayed, quite simply, because they have found artistically stimulating opportunities here.”LA Times

Book Review: Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina by Brenda Dixon GottschildA Biohistory of American Performance
by Lewis Whittington
“…about the visionary founder and artistic director of Philadanco, the internationally renowned dance troupe that is still going strong after 40 years and that embodies the spirit of Philadelphia.”Philly.com

Hofesh Shechter and Antony GormleySurvivor
The Barbican
12 January 2012

The dark and often explosive forces that Hofesh Shechter captured in his choreographer’s cut of Political Mother are taken to the next level in Survivor , which tips over into a work governed by Shechter’s music rather than by his movement. In fact, dance is very much a bit player, albeit one with sufficient quality to register in the “best supporting” category. While the genre of work follows a journey already underway, it also departs from Shechter’s usual focus on controlling all the elements since the composer/choreographer has let go of the design concept by becoming the latest dance maker to partner with the ubiquitous visual artist, Antony Gormley.

The style and sound of Political Mother – the Choreographer’s Cut – a nominee for best modern choreography in next week’s National Dance Awards – is revisited in this new work with the stage surrounded on three sides by high platforms containing more musicians than I could count, all of whom seemed to be either drummers or playing instruments with strings. Drum beats were very much the leit motif of this work with the lofty professional percussionists being joined on stage in two memorable sequences by up to 100 mobile, volunteer drummers, bashing away in unison. On the first occasion, their military-style chants and heavy beats responded to the despot-style shouting of a “conductor” mounted precariously on a chair. The fourth wall was also breached when two performers in the audience suddenly leapt into action.

While it would be difficult to discern any particular narrative meaning for Survivor, Shechter and Gormley have clearly been influenced by powerful forces, either of the natural environment or man-made: thus, we had a diet of big, monochrome film imagery, ranging from a frothy, bubbling sea; huge waterfalls; thousands of birds making patterns in the sky and a controlled demolition of a high rise structure. The human forces of music and percussion sat strongly within these images and – though I make no pretence to be a music critic – Shechter’s composition (again assisted by Yaron Engler for percussion and Nell Catchpole with strings) was an impressive arrangement that mixed many moods. I particularly enjoyed a solitary piano piece midway through the work, accompanied by real-time camera footage, beginning with a close-up of the pianist’s hands and panning away as the camera was whisked up into the upper reaches of the theatre space.

Gormley’s influence could be clearly seen, from the opening line of musicians, rocking in and out of pinpoint spots above their heads, appearing like a row of medieval gargoyles to his special motif of the featureless, solitary man, often posed against the imposing images of Mother Nature’s power. One intriguing sequence had a stiff-limbed mannequin on a Kirby wire rotating around several feet above the stage (and it was surprising when he turned out to be human). Another man – wearing what appeared to be one of the Ghostbusters’ backpacks – roamed around, on the stage, under the stage and in the wings filming, with the images projected onto the screen behind. Incongruously, this included close-up film of a man, lying in a bath, apparently shivering and talking to God through the plughole. Performers emerged from hidden platforms under the stage (which became a novel way for Shechter and Gormley to arrive for their curtain calls) and heavy cannonballs were dropped from heights or rolled around by the five dancers.

Survivor had the capacity to surprise over and over again in it’s unbroken 75 minute duration but, for all this ingenuity, visual appeal and an outstanding score, the work lacked an important sense of theatre and there were a number of times (not least in two songs by an acoustic guitarist) when the momentum flagged and minds wandered. As has happened so often before, this collaboration by two individuals who are outstanding innovators in their own art, didn’t quite add up to the sum total of that brilliance.

Washington DC Preview: Mariinsky Ballet’s Fokine worksHistory revisited
by Sarah Kaufman
“We may think of these works, well-known as they are, as omnipresent in the ballet world. But it has been nearly a quarter-century since “Chopiniana” was danced at the Kennedy Center, and more than 30 years since the Fokine “Firebird” (many others came after him) or “Scheherazade.””Washington Post

When will David Cameron make a song and dance about song and dance?The Week in Arts
by David Lister
“This isn’t a little niche area. Dance is massively popular. But can you imagine the astonishment if Mr Cameron were to follow up his visit to Pinewood and his film speech with a visit to a Royal Ballet class at Covent Garden to hold forth on extending the repertoire?”Independent

REVIEW: Hofesh ShechterAn army of drummers cannot save this experiment between the choreographer-composer and the artist, which is let down by Shechter’s score
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by Judith Mackrell
“Survivor does feel like a true and interesting experiment, one from which both its creators are likely to profit in subsequent work. But in its current form it’s just a pot boiler…”Guardian

REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter3 stars
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by Mark Monahan
“What follows is a grand, sprawling, chaotic piece with some truly stunning sequences, a fair old bit of padding and a drizzle of pretension. ……In fairness to Shechter, he always insisted that Survivor would be more a beefed-up concert than a dance show. ”Daily Telegraph

REVIEW: Hofesh Shechter2 stars
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by John L Walters
“His newest piece, Survivor, a 75-minute audiovisual work, is a collaboration with Antony Gormley, and is not so much dance as live art or minimalist “opera”.”Guardian

REVIEW: Royal Ballet4 stars
Romeo and Juliet
UK, London, Covent Garden
Dancers: Acosta, Avis, McGorian, Rojo, Stepanek
by Louise Levene
“Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta have been cast together as Shakespeare’s lovers for six years now, and while the fit is as perfect as ever, there’s something slightly ‘‘married’’ about the great pas de deux, which offered none of the grabby desperation one sees in the thrilling early days of a partnership.”Sunday Telegraph

REVIEW: English National BalletDerek Deane and the ENB bring the swing to the London Coliseum very successfully
Strictly Gershwin
UK, London, Coliseum
Dancers: Berlanga, Cao, Chalendard, Glurdjidze, Konvalina, Muntagirov, Streeter
by Louise Levene
“Deane’s routines may not be the ideal showcase for Zdenek Konvalina and Vadim Muntagirov, but these pedigree princes give a thoroughbred classical gloss to their material, and the jazz idiom obliges them to dance brighter, louder and sexier. Who really could ask for any more?”Sunday Telegraph

Bolshoi administration steps into dancer scandalThe Bolshoi’s director general refutes Tsiskaridze’s dismissal claim
by Alina Lobzina
““No one is going to fire Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who was, and is, to remain Bolshoi Theatre’s soloist,” Iksanov told the news agency Itar-Tass. The discharge of Tsiskaridze’s pedagogical part-time contract was in order to give a full-time job to an instructor, he added.”Moscow News

REVIEW: Scottish Ballet
The Sleeping Beauty
UK, Edinburgh, Festival Theatre
Dancers: Robertson
by Josie Balfour
“Bringing a meditative quality to the classic work, choreographer Ashley Page has focussed on melding a number of different tellings of the work into one evolving piece….. Thus the dancers take centre stage rather than Tchaikovsky’s often eccentric narrative.”Scotsman

REVIEW: Anneke HansenThree Women Dancing
youandyouandyou
USA, New York, University Settlement
Dancers: Hansen, Pierce, McAtamney
by Deborah Jowitt
“The three women move sensitively together, despite their individual qualities. Pierce, like Hansen, worked with Rudner at Sarah Lawrence, and is only slightly tauter than Hansen, while Irish, ballet-trained McAtamney is more introverted—a bit less at ease than the other two. I like watching all three.”Arts Journal

REVIEW: Ann Liv YoungA Fairy Tale Princess Who Takes Bathroom Breaks
Sleeping Beauty Part 1
USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center
Dancers: Guerrero, Young, Van Dusen
by Brian Seibert
“….and after rising, sitting on the toilet again and drinking more water, Ms. Young went into a fervent lap dance for a blow-up Prince Charming doll tied to a seat in the front row…….And that was the show, followed by an opportunity to have your photograph taken with Sleeping Beauty for two bucks.”New York Times

REVIEW: Meg StuartForget About a Paper Moon: This Swan’s Cardboard
Blessed
USA, New York, New York Live Arts
Dancers: Camacho, Hurtado, Nishiwaki
by Claudia La Rocco
“Ms. Stuart frequently plays with the oblique and the tedious, often with thoughtful results. But at a certain point on Thursday my experience shifted from feeling caught up within the poetic vagaries of a live work to constructing, from a remove, intellectual hypotheses about it.”New York Times

REVIEW: Contingency PlanThe Contingency Plan’s latest program shows off the troupe’s versatility
Las Tres Marias, Adhere
Canada, Vancouver, Firehall Arts Centre
Dancers: Goodman, Osborne, Fitzner
by Janet Smith
“And in the end, Adhere felt like a series of studies, an experiment in moods that was stronger in its lone bits than its final section of group work when it began to lose its simple, clear focus.”Straight.com

Preview: 7th Prague Ballet GalaInternationally renowned dancers pirouette into Prague
by Johana Muckova
“But Valdés is only one performer on the star-studded program; it is certain that the seventh annual Prague Ballet Gala will offer dance fans a great evening’s entertainment.”Prague Post

René Erik Olsen is a Danish photographer who worked for several years with Tim Rushton’s Danish Dance Theatre before being given the opportunity to spend seven months taking rehearsal pictures of the Royal Danish Ballet. Out of the 125,000 photos that resulted, he’s chosen just under 500 for a book which covers all but one of the programmes the company danced in the season 2006/7. A great advantage for most people will be that you really don’t need a word of Danish to enjoy the book: there are two brief pages of acknowledgements, all translated into English, and a list of the ballets and their choreographers – and no more text at all, apart from the captions giving the names of the dancers. The pictures have to speak for themselves.

For me, Olsen couldn’t have chosen a better season to document: it was the first year I made multiple trips to Copenhagen, and I saw most of these productions. The longer ballets get the most coverage, so there are many shots of Swan Lake, Napoli and Caroline Mathilde, and I would have traded some of these for more of some of the shorter pieces – particularly Kim Brandstrup’s Ghosts – and also a wider range from La Sylphide, where Olsen concentrates entirely on Nikolai Hübbe’s coaching of Christina Michanek. But everyone will have their own favourites, and it’s good that, whatever the ballet, Olsen doesn’t focus only on the principal dancers – there can’t be more than half-a-dozen of that season’s company missing from the book. (Though I haven’t so far found even a glimpse of the very last dancer on the roster at that time, a boy then listed as Alban Carl Filip Lendorf, in his first year as an apprentice – it would have been nice to have a record of his earliest steps!)

Good, too, to be reminded of the fine dancers who have left the company since then – Silja Schandorf and Kenneth and Marie-Pierre Greve, of course, but also Izabela Sokolowska, Yao Wei and Kristoffer Sakurai, all of whom were featured prominently that year. And then there are today’s stars, of course: Mads Blangstrup (amazingly photogenic) seems to have been in almost everything that season, but there are plenty also of Gudrun Bojesen and Thomas Lund, and of those like Ulrikk Birkjæer and Alexander Stæger who were just beginning to make their mark.

Olsen describes his intention as being ‘to depict the dancers and their working day’, and at a guess I’d say about two thirds of the photographs are studio shots and the remainder show stage rehearsals, mostly in costume. I actually find the studio ones more interesting – they give a real feeling for the effort that goes into a finished performance. Naturally some of them show legs that will be better stretched and lines that will be properly straight by the time they’re shown to an audience, but that only reinforces our understanding of how much work it takes to produce that look of elegant ease (well, ease, anyway: there’s deliberately not much elegance in some of the newer works). It was a creative season and Olsen catches several choreographers – among them Jorma Elo, Matjash Mrozewski, and the company’s own Louise Midjord – working directly with the dancers.

As for the book itself, it’s the first dance book I’ve come across made by the growing print-on-demand process. The publishing company, Blurb, provides software and a variety of templates for page formats, but Olsen himself did the detailed layout – a time consuming activity, I imagine, for a book of this size, but well worth it: the photographs are very attractively presented and also very clearly identified. It’s a well-made book, printed on good paper – my only slight reservation would be that it’s slightly too tightly bound so that the pages don’t easily lie open. As your copy is printed especially for you, you can choose between a dust jacket and a laminated cover – I went for the second and am pleased that I did. Although this method puts the price up somewhat, it seems a promising way forward for niche-interest books like this. (A dance book published in Denmark by convential methods would probably retail for about £37, after benefitting from various grants or subsidies.) There’s also a companion book (which I’ve seen but not had a chance to examine closely) of interviews with ten of the dancers – it has another 250 or so photographs but the interviews with those of the who are Danish are in Danish only.

Olsen told me that he ‘only’ kept about 52,000 of his original shots: I hope there’ll be some way that the public can get to see some more of them some day. What with these, and the excellent coverage it gets these days from house photographer David Amzallag, the Royal Danish Ballet must be one of the best-recorded companies in existence.

INTERVIEW: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo – Tory Dobrin, Paul Ghiselin and others
Trockaderos revel in paradox
Chicago
by Sid Smith
“These older ballets have such a wealth of choreography in terms of their steps,” Dobrin says. “A lot of contemporary ballets are interesting, but the actual steps employed just aren’t as sophisticated. Costume some of these old works that we do in spandex, and you’d say, ‘Wow, a modern hit.’ A lot of people who love ballet respond to that.”Chicago Tribune

REVIEW: Hofesh ShechterIs it possible for a show with 200 drummers to be a damp squib? It is now
Survivor
UK, London, Barbican
by Ismene Brown
“Empty vessels make the most noise. That pithy old aphorism floated into my head a scant few minutes into the much-heralded new work by the undoubtedly talented, but here way off-beam, Hofesh Shechter.”The Arts Desk

PREVIEW: New York City Ballet
Wheeldon and Dealin’: New York City Ballet returns with Balanchine and Wheeldon works
New York
by Susan Reiter
“This season’s major premiere sounds a lot more promising. Christopher Wheeldon, while no longer the company’s resident choreographer, remains a regular contributor to the repertory and continues to be one of the ballet world’s most significant and in-demand choreographers. His 18th work for the company, set to Bizet’s robustly melodious L’Arlesienne Suites No. 1 and 2, features a cast of 20, including five principal couples.”City ARts

REVIEW: Parsons DanceA solid jump for Joyce
Round My World, Swing Shift, A Stray’s Lullaby, Caught
USA, New York, Joyce Theater
Dancers: Bourne
by Leigh Witchel
“…it’s a pleasant surprise to see his current show is still entertaining, but with more substance – and less cheddar.”New York Post

REVIEW: Parsons DanceAll Lines Lead to a Circle In David Parsons’s Orbit
Round My World, Swing Shift, Step Into My Dream duet, Caught, A Stray’s Lullaby
USA, New York, Joyce SoHo
Dancers: Bourne
by Brian Seibert
“Yet in the middle of a Parsons program, the inscrutability was actually refreshing. Even with its flaws, Ms. Skarpetowska’s dance made you think.”New York Times

REVIEW: Replica Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: 414
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Bendell, Pickard
by Josephine Leask
“Pickard has a remarkable physical pathos which pulls us right into their intense but short-lived romance.”The Place

REVIEW: Replica Dance Company
Resolution! 2012: 414
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Bendell, Pickard
by Natalia Okeke
“Time stands still just for a while, long enough to be stunned by this performance by Hannily Bendell and Thomas Pickard.”The Place

REVIEW: Eithne Kane and Dominick Mitchell Bennett
Resolution! 2012: When Kane Met Conspicuous
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Bennett, Kane
by Josephine Leask
“While punishing to witness this duo, I can’t help but admire their stamina.”The Place

REVIEW: Ffin 2
Resolution! 2012: The Art of Riot
UK, London, The Place
by Josephine Leask
“Powerful lasting impressions make up for some naïve choreography.”The Place

REVIEW: Ffin 2
Resolution! 2012: The Art of Riot
UK, London, The Place
Dancers: Fine, Sandford
by Natalia Okeke
“Perhaps tackling a theme too large for a small company to embody, this was not quite the success that I’d hoped for.”The Place

REVIEW: Force MajeureA lively slap in the face
Never Did Me Any Harm
Australia, Sydney, Wharf 1
Dancers: Crowley, Howard, McCracken, Mu
by Deborah Jones
“I doubt anyone will leave the theatre changed or surprised, although they will have been delighted.”Australian

Dance and Diplomacy – DanceMotion USA
DanceMotion USA to take shows to countries off the beaten path
Washington
By Rebecca Ritzel
“The Brookland venue hosted 160 performers and diplomatic guests at an event celebrating DanceMotion USA, the State Department initiative that will send four American dance companies to countries that are mostly off the beaten tourist path. The Boise, Idaho-based modern Trey McIntyre Project is headed for Asia. Philadelphia hip-hoppers from Rennie Harris Puremovement are off to the Middle East. New York’s Sean Curran Company will perform modern dance in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic…”Washington Post

REVIEW: Daniel LinehanJuxtaposing Movement And Speech
Not About Everything, Zombie Aporia
USA, New York, Abrons Arts Center
Dancers: Lac, Linehan, Rosengren
by Gia Kourlas
“In this solo (Not About Everything) he demonstrates a significant goal of his work: to show the contrast between movement and language, or action versus sound.”New York Times

NEWS: BBC Radio Dance Nation series – Deborah Bull
Deborah Bull to explore dance’s social role in R4 series
London
by Matthew Hemley
“Royal Opera House creative director Deborah Bull is to front a five-part BBC series looking at the role dance has played socially in Britain’s history.
“Deborah Bull’s Dance Nation will be broadcast on Radio 4, and is being made by independent company Just Radio.”Stage

Toronto Arts Funding – not cuts
Toronto budget: Arts funding won’t be cut
Toronto
by Martin Knelman
“The executive committee of city council voted in favour of sustaining arts funding levels at the same level that prevailed in 2011.
“Translation: If this decision is endorsed by full council next week as expected, arts funding totalling $19 million will be provided through the Toronto Arts Council, local arts service organizations and direct funding to the city’s major arts organizations.”Toronto Star

PREVIEW: Shen Yun Performing Arts and Chinese New Year Carnival 2012
Troupes present two views of China
Toronto
By Michael Crabb
“Both groups variously claim to celebrate China’s regional and ethnic diversity. So why, you might ask, don’t they join forces and make the whole affair even more mind-blowingly spectacular? The answer has to do with politics.”Toronto Star

Dance Fitness – Bhangra
Urban Athlete
A Wedding Dance That’s Also a Workout
New York
By Shivani Vora
“Apparently I’m behind the times. Dance studios, gyms and clubs in New York City and beyond focus on the fitness aspects of bhangra, a centuries-old folk dance from northern India that farmers still perform to celebrate the harvestNY Times